GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The nation's 11^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University Men's Swimming & Diving team will continue a 4-week stretch of away duals when they compete against their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponent of the season on Friday at Adams State University.
 
The dual will get underway at noon in the Grizzlies' Plachy Hall Pool and is being held in conjunction with a women's encounter between the same two foes.  The Maverick women are also at Western on Thursday evening.
 
Last Time Out
 
Juniors Torsten Rau and Ammar Hassan combined for five event wins and set NCAA Championship qualifying marks to lead a strong Maverick effort at BYU in inter-divisional action on last Friday (Oct. 18) at the Cougars' Richard Building Pool.
 
The Mavericks, ranked 11^th in this week's CSCAA/TYR NCAA Division II Preseason Top 25 Coaches' poll, won seven of the 16 men's events contested against the Division I Cougars falling by just 13 points (155-142) in the dual.
 
Rau touched first in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9 minutes, 43.22 seconds to just get under the provisional NCAA Division II Championship qualifying standard of 9:32.15 with the allowed 11.4-second altitude adjustment.
 
The Sandhausen, Germany native also later won the 200 back and in 1:53.24 and led a 1-2 Maverick sweep in the 500 free with a time of 4:45.74.  Logan Ellis second in that event in 4:51.39 after taking third in the 1,000 at 10:13.14.
 
Meanwhile, Hassan dominated the diving events winning both the 1 and 3-meter competitions by wide amounts with more NCAA qualifying scores.  He took the 3-meter by more than 27 points with a tally of 352.60 points, easily over the NCAA qualifying score of 295 before winning the 1-meter with 366.80 points to win by nearly 49 points.  That mark also easily surpassed the 1-meter qualifying standard of 285 and was just off his own school-record of 384.85.
 
Noah Macomber set an NCAA mark on the 3-meter finishing third with 298.85 points.
 
The other event wins for the Mavericks came from Justin Fell in the 200 free and in the 400 free relay.  Fell won his race in 1:45.14 ahead of freshman teammate Alex Bruce (1:45.52), who also finished second in the 200 back to Rau with a clocking of 1:57.07.
 
Bruce then combined with Noah Vallee, Lane Austin and Mahmoud Elgayar to win the relay in 3:09.76.
 
Meet Details
 
Friday's dual will follow the NCAA 16-event format but as Adams State does not have divers, only 14 events will be contested.
 
An order of events for the dual can be seen below.
 
200 medley relay
1000 free
200 free
100 back
100 breast
200 fly
50 free
100 free 
200 back
200 breast
500 free
100 fly
400 IM
400 free relay
 
About the Grizzlies
 
The Grizzlies have re-instated their men's program for this season after a 3-year hiatus, when ASU only had a women's team.  Quint Seckler, who was already the women's coach, is their head coach.
 
He has a small roster of just 11 members, according to the team's website.
 
The Grizzlies began the season on Oct. 5 at the Denver Relays and finished fourth out of as many teams.  The team then squared off with Colorado College on Saturday in Pueblo, falling 218-46 in their only dual of the season to this point.
 
Gilbert Benton won the 500 free (5:16.42) and 100 breast (1:02.74) against the Tigers.
 
Last Time We Met
 
The Maverick and Grizzlies last tangled on Halloween in 2015, which was the last of six all-time meetings between the programs, all of which have been won by CMU.  The Mavericks won the latest contest, held as part of a triangular with the Colorado School of Mines, by a 267-110 margin in Alamosa and are 4-0 against the Grizzlies there.
 
Initial Award Sweep
 
The Maverick men swept the initial set of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week honors that were bestowed on Oct. 9.  Because less than half of the conference's men's team competed in the weeks since, the RMAC has not conducted that process since.
 
Torsten Rau was the initial swimmer of the week while Noah Macomber was named as the conference's diver of the week.
 
The only swimming qualifier
 
Maverick junior Torsten Rau is the only RMAC swimmer to have set a NCAA Division II Championship qualifying cut time thus far in the young season.  His altitude-adjusted mark of 9:31.82 in the 1000-yard freestyle ranks him seventh nationally.
 
Rau leads the RMAC by 14.31 seconds in that event and is the top RMAC swimmer in five individual events this season. 
 
Diving Qualifiers
 
The Mavericks also have two divers who have set NCAA Championship qualifying standards this season in Ammar Hassan and Noah Macomber.  Hassan has set qualifying efforts in all four of his efforts so far this season tallying 366.80 points on the 1-meter and 352.60 points on the 3-meter board last Friday at BYU to win both events and set new Richards Building Pool Records.
 
Macomber has competed in all three meets this season and has surpassed the 3-meter qualifying standard of 295 in each of the last two, tallying 322.20 points to win that event on Oct. 12 at Denver.
 
RMAC leaders
 
Although it is young in the season, the Mavericks are dominating the conference performance lists as reported to the NCAA through USA Swimming. The Maverick men have the top time in all but one of the 17 different individual swimming and four relay events they have competed in this season.  In the 100 free, the lone event they do not lead, the Mavericks have five of the top six and eight of the top 10 performers thus far.
 
Here is a listing of the Mavericks' conference leaders.
 
50 Free- Zander Minano- 21.08
200 Free- Torsten Rau- 1:41.29
500 Free- Rau- 4:36.80
100 Free- Rau- 9:31.82*
1650 Free- Rau- 16:17.20
50 Back- Lane Austin- 23.82*
100 Back- Austin- 50.24
200 Back- Rau- 1:51.43*
50 Breast- Mahmoud Elgayar- 26.16
100 Breast- Elgayar- 57.35
200 Breast- Elgayar- 2:06.57
50 Fly- Jake Simmons- 23.37
100 Fly- Pedro Terres Illescas- 50.72
200 Fly- Terres Illescas- 1:53.81
200 IM- Matthew Barrett- 1:55.75
400 IM- Jake Simmons- 4:12.42
200 Free Relay- Minano, Noah Vallee, Austin, Elgayar- 1:24.20
400 Free Relay- Austin, Justin Fell, Elgayar, Ethan Fox- 3:08.62
200 Medley Relay- Austin, Elgayar, Terres Illescas, Minano- 1:32.55
400 Medley Relay- Austin, Elgayar, Terres Illescas, Vallee- 3:25.88*
 
*- Denotes time set in Saturday's dual at Denver.
 
Mavs' New Head Coach
 
A veteran with nearly 30 years of collegiate coaching experience, Mickey Wender is beginning his tenure as the Mavericks' Head Swimming & Diving and Triathlon teams this year after being announced as the fourth head swimming coach in the program's history in July. 
 
Wender replaced Geoff Hanson, who resigned for a similar position at Division I Southern Illinois.
 
Wender has already racked up more than 400 wins in his 27 years as a collegiate head coach, mostly recently serving at Division I Army West Point, where he coached the Black Knights from 2006-19.  He had also been the head coach at the University of Washington from 1998-2006 after a 1992-98 stint at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1992-98 and served as an Head Coach for American Samoa at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
 
Wender has developed swimmers to qualify for NCAA Division I Championship meets in every event and was named as the Patriot League Swimming Coach of the Year three times at Army West Point, most recently in 2017.  His swimmers have broken all of the existing school records at every school he coached and have earned conference championships in over 50 different events.
 
He has also produced several swimmers who ranked in the Top 100 in the world and has coached swimmers at every U.S. Olympic Trials since 2000.
 
Returning Assistants
 
Although Wender is new to CMU, he will have the aid of some experienced CMU assistants.  Logan Pearsall, who has been named as the CSCAA NCAA Division II Men's Diving Coach of the Year in each of the past two years is back as the team's diving coach for his sixth season and Justin Hastings, a former CMU all-American and school record holder is back from his fourth season on the CMU Coaching staff and played a major role in recruiting for this year's squad.
 
Defending Champs
 
The Mavericks are competing in 2019-20 as the defending Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Champions on both the men's and women's side. 
 
The Maverick men broke their own 5-year old championship record for team points, scoring 1,261 to win their third conference crown in program history (2014, 2017).  The Mavericks won 16 individual vents and finished 320 points ahead of runner-up Oklahoma Baptist.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick women relied on their depth to score 1,019 ½ points to earn their first conference title in program history.  They won just two out of 21 individual events but had a vast number of other high finishes to defeat Oklahoma Baptist and the rest of the 9-team field by an impressive 230 ½ points.
 
Polling No. 1
 
Both Maverick teams were unanimous picks to defend their RMAC titles in 2019-20, according to the conference's preseason coaches' poll, which was announced last Friday morning.  The Maverick women received all eight possible first place votes to take the poll with 64 points.  Dixie State was picked second with 50 points while 2019 runner-up Oklahoma Baptist was tabbed third with 47 ahead of the Colorado School of Mines (43) and the rest of the nine women's teams.
 
In the men's poll, CMU's men received all four possible first place votes to take the poll with a maximum 16 points while 2019 runner-up Oklahoma Baptist was second with 12.  Oklahoma Christian and Mines tied for third with eight ahead of Adams State, re-starting their men's program this year.
 
The nine women's coaches ranked their opposition 1-8 without voting for their own squad while the five men's coaches ranked their opposition 1-4.  Wender's first place votes went to the Dixie State women and Oklahoma Baptist men.
 
Program bests
 
The Mavericks came just short of finishing in the top 10 at last year's NCAA Division II Championships for the first time in program history.  However, the Mavericks did record their best ever finishes in 2019 as the Maverick men finished 11^th while the women took 16^th.
 
National Poll
 
The Mavericks men checked in ranked 11^th in the CSCAA/TYR Division II Preseason Top 25 Coaches' Poll, which was announced last week.  The Mavericks received 75 points in the poll, topped by defending national champion Queens (N.C.).  Oklahoma Baptist is the only other RMAC team in the poll.  The Bison were ranked 25^th.
 
Road stretch of a home-friendly schedule
 
This week's dual continues CMU's lone road stretch of the entire season in what is a very home friendly schedule overall.  The Mavericks have already paid Division I Denver and BYU visits over the last two weeks and will be at the Air Force Duals on Nov. 1 before returning home to prepare for the A3 Performance Invitational, which they will host from Nov. 20-24.
 
That meet, which will include long course time trials on the final day, will be CMU's last of 2019.
 
In 2020, the Mavericks will open with a 2-day home dual against Mines on Jan. 10 and 11.
 
The Mavericks will then host the RMAC Championships for the first time since 2017 from Feb. 12-14 and will have another set of long course time trials on Feb. 15.
 
CMU's lone road trip in 2020 will be to the Mar. 10-14 NCAA Division II National Championships.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will head to the U.S. Air Force Academy's Cadet Natatorium on Friday, Nov. 1 to compete against the host Falcons and RMAC rival Colorado School of Mines in a triangular.
 
Diving Coach Logan Pearsall will also take an elite group of divers to the A-10 Classic in Geneva, Ohio on Nov. 2-3.